Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-04-21
TAkron Times.1


Score another point for Democratic
administration. The Secretary of the
Navy recently advertised for bids fol
1910 tons of steel forgings and 4,50C
| tons of steel armOr plate to be used in
the completion of vessels now in pro.
cess of construction. Hitherto the
plate for our vessels has been made in
England; one of the last acts of the late
Republican Secretary Chandler was to
order the steel plate for the iron clad
Miantonomah, not yet hardly complet-
ed. Secretary Whitney, by letting the
bids in different way, has given the
contract to American workmen in
stead of Englishmen.
The following statement from the
Secretary tells the whole story:
''There are only two bidders to pro-
duce the armor, but the bid of the Beth
leham Company is as good as fifty. 1t
is from as good company as there is
in the United States, and the prices
named are very low. 1t is of very little
consequence now that the FortificatiOns
bill failed in the last Congress. The
first thing needed for the Notifications
and the navy is a plant to make armOr
and gun steel. 1t takes two and half
years to erect it; it costs 50, 900, 900. The
result of this bidding secures it. 1t Oc-
Cured to me last July that instead of
contracting out our new armOred ships
in the usual way, the contractor to buy
the armor lin which case it would have
been purchased abroad) / would put
together the armOr for all of them and
all the gun steel required for their ar
mament, to see if that would not in
duce responsible party to undertake
the work in this country. 1 put the
time for bidding after the adjournment
OF Congress so as to have the benefit of
a broader plan if a bill on Notifications
should be passed. Its failure was a dis
appointment, but it has resulted all
right, and the best of all is that the pri-
ces are not above what a contractor
would have to pay for the same armor
bought abroad and laid down here, du
ties paid, under our laws. So that the
additional cost to us is nothing and we
will have plant in this country ade-
quate to our needs.n
The Philadelphia Press, commenting
upon this says:
Secretary Whitney has accomplish
ed, in the steps taken to secure the
manufacture of steel guns and armor,
one of those rare triumphs in Ameri-
can administration, consistent plan
guided to success through all the bogs
of department routine and the pitfalls
of Congressional appropriations. 1t is
a sincere qualification to find in the
present award ground for unhesitating
approval of his management of hard
job, in which more than one Secretary
before him has failed"
And the New York World adds:
Ellis policy has been the simple and
tracts for armor, steel forgings and all
implements of war, as to create home
manufactures and make us independent
of foreign skill, experience and plants.
In this he has been successful. The
important thing to be done was not
millions for an extended system of sea
coast Notifications or the ordering a
fleet of war ships, but to secure the
manufacture in the United States of
armor for vessels and heavy steel forg-
ings for naval guns, without which the
new Notifications and vessels would be
of little account unless we purchased
abroad. In this he has been successful,
as shown by the bid of the Bethlehem
works, which will turn out the armorI
plates Secretary Chandler went to Eng
land for the year before the Cleveland
administration came into power"
The establishment of this plant to
manufacture our guns and armor plate
should he source Of congratulation to
the entire country. This is a Demo-
cratic administration. -.,aa-s